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A Journal for Church Officers
The Huguenot Christian, Part 1
by Gregory E. Reynolds
by Danny E. Olinger
Dr. Robert B. Strimple: A Tribute
by W. Robert Godfrey
The Unaccommodated Reformation: A Review Article
by David C. Noe
by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
From the Editor. Poor John Knox. He just doesn't get the respect his mentor John Calvin gets. Perhaps it is because his birth date is not certain, but believed to be 1510. So for this Reformation month I would like to recognize the 500th anniversary of the birth of the "Trumpeter of God," as W. Stanford Reid aptly called him in the title of his 1974 biography of that name.
In 1988, when I was an OPC pastor in New Rochelle, New York, I delivered four lectures on the Huguenots, who were the original settlers. This was a unique opportunity to present the Reformed faith to the community and especially the Huguenot and Historical Association of New Rochelle. I was privileged to give a lecture to the society on the nature of my research in preparation for the lectures, many of whom were direct descendents of the Huguenots. But best of all, Dr. Roger Nicole, a Swiss Frenchman who was present as our Reformation Day lecturer, addressed the society in French, explaining Calvin's gospel.
I offer the first part of my first lecture to commemorate a not-so-well-known part of Reformation historyone in which the differences between Rome and the Reformers was accented in blood. Danny Olinger will demonstrate in his article "A Primer on Vatican II" that, while our differences with Rome may be quite unlike those of the Reformation era, they are no less serious, however subtly they may be communicated.
Then Dr. Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster Seminary in California presents a tribute to one of my favorite professors of systematic theology, and an expert in contemporary Roman Catholic theology, Robert Strimple. Dr. Strimple's grasp of the subtleties of Vatican II has distinguished him as an interpreter of the new theological environment.
Finally, classics professor David Noe reviews a book that brings the tenets of the Reformation into question, as so many in our day doJames Payton's Getting the Reformation Wrong.
On this Reformation Day we need to be reminded of the great certainties of the faith that compelled our forefathers to risk their lives and fortunes. I hope that Christina Rossetti's poem "The One Certainty" will help.
Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds
Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders, and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high quality editorials, articles, and book reviews we endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic Presbyterianism.
Contact the Editor: Gregory Edward Reynolds
Editorial address: Dr. Gregory Edward Reynolds,
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Manchester, NH 03104-2522
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Electronic mail: email@example.com
© 2024 The Orthodox Presbyterian Church


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"There's a beauty in all my imperfections and he's the one who holds them up for me to see."
"Nobody is perfect. Everyone has their own little idiosyncrasies. Some people call those imperfections, but no, that's the good stuff. "
Robin Williams
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
The Twits <Roald Dahl>
"الجمال لديها الكثير لتفعله مع الطابع
"Beauty has a lot to do with character."
Arabic proverb
Let me begin where I will end … there is beauty in imperfections.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
That would imply being authentic is all about being as beautiful as you can be – imperfections and all.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
Okay. That said.
Why the hell don't brands, companies & marketers not only accept this, but embrace it. We talk about "authentic" and "being human" and, yet, businesses run scared of anything less than being some perfect droid of humanity <you cannot be a droid & human>.
It's like they want something, but are not willing to accept what they want. Look. We've danced around this authentic concept in business for a while. Far too often it reaches some absurd levels of "how can I be authentic" which is weird. You are either authentic or you are not <and you shouldn't have to be purposeful in doing so>.
** note: I much prefer genuine over authentic.
I believe the absurdity is centered on the fact businesses have an uncomfortable relationship with authenticity. They talk authentic/human, which means embracing imperfections & flaws, but are scared shitless of anything less than perfection & flaws with 'customer service' <or anything for that matter>.
In other words. They seek to be authentically perfect <an oxymoron>.
It is usually here where I pull out the 2012 Trendwatching Flawsome trend where they stated: "brands that behave more humanly, including showing their flaws, will be awesome."
While many trends are all about the new, it's always worth remembering that success in business in the end is more about being aligned with consumer culture than just being aware of 'new' techniques and technologies.
While 2011 saw new levels of consumer disgust at too many business' self-serving and often downright immoral (if not criminal) actions, stories of businesses doing good (Patagonia! Ben & Jerry's!) remind consumers that personality and profit can be compatible.
In fact, in 2012 consumers won't expect brands to be flawless; they will even embrace brands that are FLAWSOME*, and at large (or at least somewhat) human. Brands that are honest about their flaws, that show some empathy, generosity, humility, flexibility, maturity, humor and dare we say it, some character and humanity.
I agreed with that trend then and I agree with it now. A Flawsome authenticity should be what every sane business should seek – internally with employees & externally with customers.
But they just can't seem to get there mentally. Companies want authenticity, they want 'human', but don't want the imperfections.
Brands don't find imperfections interesting, they find them concerning. Why? Far far too often we use imperfections to point out those things we so flippantly refer to as 'flaws.' Here is a thought. Maybe we should refer to imperfections as "beauty marks" and stop being defensive about them.
While I would argue there really is no such thing as perfection for the sake of today's discussion, let's say there is. I do so with Walt Whitman in mind:
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
Within the multitudes lies the most interesting imperfection of all — contradiction. More often than not we look upon ourselves as imperfections but something, or more often, some things simply contradict.
Our internal thoughts conflict.
Our opinions conflict … with each other as well as with others.
Our actions can contradict <nice at some point & not so nice in a similar situation>.
This creates a problem for a business.
In business, perfection, for some odd reason, seems tightly tied to consistency. Some tenuous smooth link between what we desire, what we are, how we act and what we think. And any time this smoothness is rippled in any way somehow imperfection has entered into the equation. And, there you go, that is a bad thing for most business people.
Day after day I remind any company, any brand, any CMO:
We are large.
We contain multitudes.
We are human <because business, inherently, are made up of its people>.
And within this large multitude there are loud voices, quiet voices and silent voices. All of which speak to us and for us. All of which use perfect words, use perfectly sensible well intended actions, to perfectly fuck up our smoothness.
All that perfection still creates imperfection. If you want to be authentic, that is the overall thought everyone kind of needs to get their head wrapped around. In the circular world of imperfection, or perfection <because they are actually one and the same simply different sides of the same coin> the most interesting in us, and of us, is always something of a contradiction.
I purposefully used appearance-like quotes to open this thought piece and have purposefully avoided discussing appearance in discussing beauty, perfection & imperfection. I did so not to tritely suggest that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' but rather instead to point out beauty is complex & simple and made up of the things you do & don't do – not external looks & perceptions.
Authentic is complex in its make up of its largeness and multitude.
Authentic is simple because it resides in contradictions.
Even simpler in that it rarely, if ever, resides in some smooth unrippled feature – whether that feature be physical or within character. But maybe that is why imperfections are so difficult for us, as in sense of self, to manage. Contradictions are not easy. Interesting, but not easy. Not always easy to grasp and not easy to understand. And in our unease we dwell on the imperfect feeling — on what is actually our perfect interesting aspect of who and what we are.
It is a battle, a debate, a whatever, I believe most everyone, most any businesses seeking authenticity, faces in some form or fashion.
"Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and applause of the many, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat."
Look. There is always, and I mean ALWAYS, beauty in imperfections. It is sometimes not easy for someone to see because it is a contradiction – how can an imperfection be perfect <which equates to beauty>?
And, correspondingly, how can beauty be imperfect?
Well. All I really know is what I said before – all imperfection has some beauty.
I could also suggest that if you think of character, which is most likely the most important aspect of total beauty in a person <even impacting appearance>, that without some contradictions you will certainly be smooth, consistent & unrippled and less interesting <boring as a matter of fact>.
And who the hell wants to be an authentically boring business <or person>?
Anyway. I am done babbling. For what it's worth <most likely not much>.
I believe contradictions are beautiful. Therefore wherever I see contradictions, within someone or in someone's appearance, I see beauty. And I can honestly say that if you even want to tie your desire of "authenticity" to storytelling … I can unequivocally tell you that people are attracted to stories with some tension and resolving some conflict.
There's a set-up, a conflict, a villain that must be overcome and a resolution with a hero at the end. Using conflict creates the opportunity for a hero, even a flawed one, who can provide a solution <even with its imperfections>.
"True perfection has to be imperfect, I know that that sounds foolish – but it's true."
Here is what I wish businesses would grasp about "authentic."
Authentic is being who you are, not planning how you will be.
Authentic is, well, being Flawsome.

subset: commoncrawl


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Puranas and Tantras
The dominant note in the Indian mind, the temperament that has been at the foundation of all its culture and originated and supported the greater part of its creative action in philosophy, religion, art and life has been, I have insisted, spiritual, intuitive and psychic: but this fundamental tendency has not excluded but rather powerfully supported a strong and rich intellectual, practical and vital activity. In the secular classical literature this activity comes very much to the front, is the prominent characteristic and puts the original spirit a little in the background. That does not mean that the spirit is changed or lost or that there is nothing psychic or intuitive in the secular poetry of the time.
On the contrary all the type of the mind reflected there is of the familiar Indian character constant through every change, religio-philosophic, religio-ethical, religio-social, with all the past spiritual experience behind it and supporting it though not prominently in the front; the imagination is of the same kind that we have found in the art of the time; the frames of significant image, symbol and myth are those which have come down from the past subjected to the modifications and new developments that get their full body in the Puranas, and they have a strong psychic suggestion. The difference is that they take in the hands of these poets more of the form of a tradition well understood and worked upon by the intellect than of an original spiritual creation, and it is the intelligence that is prominent, accepting and observing established ideas and things in this frame and type and making its critical or reproductive observation and assent vivid with the strong lines and rich colours of artistic presentation and embellishing image. The original force, the intuitive vision work most strongly now in the outward, in the sensuous, the objective, the vital aspects of existence, and it is these that in this age are being more fully taken up, brought out and made in the religious field a support for an extension of spiritual experience.
The sense of this evolution of the culture appears more clearly outside the range of pure literature in the philosophic writings of the time and in the religious poetry of the Puranas and Tantras. It was these two strains which mixing together and soon becoming a single whole proved to be the most living and enduring movement of the classical age, had the most abiding result in the mind of the people, were the creating force and made the most conspicuous part of the later popular literatures. It is a remarkable proof of the native disposition, capacity and profound spiritual intelligence and feeling of the national mind that the philosophic thinking of this period should have left behind it this immense influence; for it was of the highest and severest intellectual character.
The tendency that had begun in earlier times and created Buddhism, Jainism and the great schools of philosophy, the labour of the metaphysical intellect to formulate to the reason the truths discovered by the intuitive spiritual experience, to subject them to the close test of a logical and severely dialectical ratiocination and to elicit from them all that the thought could discover, reaches its greatest power of elaborate and careful reasoning, minute criticism and analysis and forceful logical construction and systematisation in the abundant philosophical writing of the period between the sixth and thirteenth centuries marked especially by the work of the great southern thinkers, Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa.
It did not cease even then, but survived its greatest days and continued even up to our own times throwing up sometimes great creative thinking and often new and subtle philosophical ideas in the midst of an incessant stream of commentary and criticism on established lines. Here there was no decline but a continued vigour of the metaphysical turn in the mind of the race. The work it did was to complete the diffusion of the philosophic intelligence with the result that even an average Indian mentality, once awakened, responds with a surprising quickness to the most subtle and profound ideas. It is notable that no Hindu religion old or new has been able to come into existence without developing as its support a clear philosophic content and suggestion.
The philosophical writings in prose make no pretension to rank as literature; it is in these that the critical side is prominent, and they have no well-built creative shape, but there are other productions in which a more structural presentation of the complete thought is attempted and here the literary form adopted is ordinarily the philosophical poem.
The preference for this form is a direct continuation of the tradition of the Upanishads and the Gita. These works cannot be given a very high place as poetry: they are too overweighted with thought and the preoccupation of an intellectual as distinguished from an intuitive adequacy in the phrase to have the breath of life and impetus of inspiration that are the indispensable attributes of the creative poetic mind. It is the critical and affirmative intelligence that is most active and not the vision seeing and interpretative. The epic greatness of the soul that sees and chants the self-vision and God-vision and supreme world-vision, the blaze of light that makes the power of the Upanishads, is absent, and absent too the direct thought springing straight from the soul's life and experience, the perfect, strong and suggestive phrase and the living beauty of the rhythmic pace that make the poetic greatness of the Gita. At the same time some of these poems are, if certainly not great poetry, yet admirable literature combining a supreme philosophical genius with a remarkable literary talent, not indeed creations, but noble and skilful constructions, embodying the highest possible thought, using well all the weighty, compact and sparing phrase of the classical Sanskrit speech, achieving the harmony and noble elegance of its rhythms. These merits are seen at their best in poems like the Vivekacudamani attributed to Shankara, and there we hear even, in spite of its too abstract turn, an intellectual echo of the voice of the Upanishads and the manner of the Gita. These poems, if inferior to the grandeur and beauty of earlier Indian work, are at least equal in poetic style and superior in height of thought to the same kind anywhere else and deservedly survive to fulfil the aim intended by their writers. And one must not omit to mention a few snatches of philosophic song here and there that are a quintessence at once of philosophic thought and poetic beauty, or the abundant literature of hymns, many of them consummate in their power and fervour and their charm of rhythm and expression which prepare us for the similar but larger work in the later regional literature.
The philosophical creations of India differ in this respect from the bulk of the metaphysical thinking of Europe that even when they most adopt the intellectual form and method, yet their real substance is not intellectual, but is rather the result of a subtle and very profound intelligence working on the stuff of sight and spiritual experience. This is the result of the constant unity India has preserved between philosophy, religion and Yoga. The philosophy is the intuitive or intellectual presentation of the truth that was sought for first through the religious mind and its experiences and it is never satisfied by discovering truth to the idea and justifying it to the logical intelligence, although that is admirably done, but has its eye always turned to realisation in the soul's life, the object of Yoga. The thinking of this age, even in giving so much prominence to the intellectual side, does not depart from this constant need of the Indian temperament. It works out from spiritual experience through the exact and laborious inspection and introspection of the intellect and works backward and in again from the intellectual perceptions to new gains of spiritual experience. There is indeed a tendency of fragmentation and exclusiveness; the great integral truth of the Upanishads has already been broken into divergent schools of thought and these are now farther subdividing into still less comprehensive systems; but still in each of these lessened provinces there is a gain of minute or intensive searching and on the whole, if a loss of breadth on the heights, in recompense some extension of assimilable spiritual knowledge. And this rhythm of exchange between the spirit and the intelligence, the spirit illumining, the intelligence searching and arriving and helping the lower life to absorb the intuitions of the spirit, did its part in giving Indian spirituality a wonderful intensity, security and persistence not exampled in any other people. It is indeed largely the work of these philosophers who were at the same time Yogins that saved the soul of India alive through the gathering night of her decadence.
This however could not have been done without the aid of a great body of more easily seizable ideas, forms, images, appealing to the imagination, emotions, ethical and aesthetic sense of the people, that had to be partly an expression of the higher spiritual truth and partly a bridge of transition between the normal religious and the spiritual mentality. The need was met by the Tantras and Puranas. The Puranas are the religious poetry peculiar to this period: for although the form probably existed in ancient times, it is only now that it was entirely developed and became the characteristic and the principal literary expression of the religious spirit, and it is to this period that we must attribute, not indeed all the substance, but the main bulk and the existing shape of the Puranic writings. The Puranas have been much discredited and depreciated in recent times, since the coming in of modern ideas coloured by Western rationalism and the turning of the intelligence under new impulses back towards the earlier fundamental ideas of the ancient culture. Much however of this depreciation is due to an entire misunderstanding of the purpose, method and sense of the mediaeval religious writings. It is only in an understanding of the turn of the Indian religious imagination and of the place of these writings in the evolution of the culture that we can seize their sense.
In fact the better comprehension that is now returning to us of our own self and past shows that the Puranic religions are only a new form and extension of the truth of the ancient spirituality and philosophy and socio-religious culture. In their avowed intention they are popular summaries of the cosmogony, symbolic myth and image, tradition, cult, social rule of the Indian people continued, as the name Purana signifies, from ancient times. There is no essential change, but only a change of forms. The psychic symbols or true images of truth belonging to the Vedic age disappear or are relegated to a subordinate plan with a changed and diminished sense: others take their place more visibly large in aim, cosmic, comprehensive, not starting with conceptions drawn from the physical universe, but supplied entirely from the psychic universe within us. The Vedic gods and goddesses conceal from the profane by their physical aspect their psychic and spiritual significance. The Puranic trinity and the forms of its female energies have on the contrary no meaning to the physical mind or imagination, but are philosophic and psychic conceptions and embodiments of the unity and multiplicity of the all-manifesting Godhead. The Puranic cults have been characterised as a degradation of the Vedic religion, but they might conceivably be described, not in the essence, for that remains always the same, but in the outward movement, as an extension and advance. Image worship and temple cult and profuse ceremony, to whatever superstition or externalism their misuse may lead, are not necessarily a degradation. The Vedic religion had no need of images, for the physical signs of its godheads were the forms of physical Nature and the outward universe was their visible house. The Puranic religion worshipped the psychical forms of the Godhead within us and had to express it outwardly in symbolic figures and house it in temples that were an architectural sign of cosmic significances. And the very inwardness it intended necessitated a profusion of outward symbol to embody the complexity of these inward things to the physical imagination and vision. The religious aesthesis has changed, but the meaning of the religion has been altered only in temperament and fashion, not in essence. The real difference is this that the early religion was made by men of the highest mystic and spiritual experience living among a mass still impressed mostly by the life of the physical universe: the Upanishads casting off the physical veil created a free transcendent and cosmic vision and experience and this was expressed by a later age to the mass in images containing a large philosophical and intellectual meaning of which the Trinity and the Shaktis of Vishnu and Shiva are the central figures: the Puranas carried forward this appeal to the intellect and imagination and made it living to the psychic experience, the emotions, the aesthetic feeling and the senses. A constant attempt to make the spiritual truths discovered by the Yogin and the Rishi integrally expressive, appealing, effective to the whole nature of man and to provide outward means by which the ordinary mind, the mind of a whole people might be drawn to a first approach to them is the sense of the religio-philosophic evolution of Indian culture.
It is to be observed that the Puranas and Tantras contain in themselves the highest spiritual and philosophical truths, not broken up and expressed in opposition to each other as in the debates of the thinkers, but synthetised by a fusion, relation or grouping in the way most congenial to the catholicity of the Indian mind and spirit. This is done sometimes expressly, but most often in a form which might carry something of it to the popular imagination and feeling by legend, tale, symbol, apologue, miracle and parable. An immense and complex body of psycho-spiritual experience is embodied in the Tantras, supported by visual images and systematised in forms of Yogic practice. This element is also found in the Puranas, but more loosely and cast out in a less strenuous sequence. This method is after all simply a prolongation, in another form and with a temperamental change, of the method of the Vedas. The Puranas construct a system of physical images and observances each with its psychical significance. Thus the sacredness of the confluence of the three rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, is a figure of an inner confluence and points to a crucial experience in a psycho-physical process of Yoga and it has too other significances, as is common in the economy of this kind of symbolism. The so-called fantastic geography of the Puranas, as we are expressly told in the Puranas themselves, is a rich poetic figure, a symbolic geography of the inner psychical universe. The cosmogony expressed sometimes in terms proper to the physical universe has, as in the Veda, a spiritual and psychological meaning and basis. It is easy to see how in the increasing ignorance of later times the more technical parts of the Puranic symbology inevitably lent themselves to much superstition and to crude physical ideas about spiritual and psychic things. But that danger attends all attempts to bring them to the comprehension of the mass of men and this disadvantage should not blind us to the enormous effect produced in training the mass mind to respond to a psycho-religious and psycho-spiritual appeal that prepares a capacity for higher things. That effect endures even though the Puranic system may have to be superseded by a finer appeal and the awakening to more directly subtle significances, and if such a supersession becomes possible, it will itself be due very largely to the work done by the Puranas.
< The Puranas are essentially a true religious poetry, an art of aesthetic presentation of religious truth. All the bulk of the eighteen Puranas does not indeed take a high rank in this kind: there is much waste substance and not a little of dull and dreary matter, but on the whole the poetic method employed is justified by the richness and power of the creation. The earliest work is the best - with one exception at the end in a new style which stands by itself and is unique. The Vishnu Purana for instance in spite of one or two desert spaces is a remarkable literary creation of a very considerable quality maintaining much of the direct force and height of the old epic style. There is in it a varied movement, much vigorous and some sublime epic writing, an occasional lyrical element of a lucid sweetness and beauty, a number of narratives of the finest verve and skilful simplicity of poetic workmanship. The Bhagavat coming at the end and departing to a great extent from the more popular style and manner, for it is strongly affected by the learned and more ornately literary form of speech, is a still more remarkable production full of subtlety, rich and deep thought and beauty. It is here that we get the culmination of the movement which had the most important effects on the future, the evolution of the emotional and ecstatic religions of Bhakti. The tendency that underlay this development was contained in the earlier forms of the religious mind of India and was slowly gaining ground, but it had hitherto been overshadowed and kept from its perfect formation by the dominant tendency towards the austerities of knowledge and action and the seeking of the spiritual ecstasy only on the highest planes of being. The turn of the classical age outward to the exterior life and the satisfaction of the senses brought in a new inward turn of which the later ecstatic forms of the Vaishnava religion were the most complete manifestation. Confined to the secular and outward this fathoming of vital and sensuous experience might have led only to a relaxation of nerve and vigour, an ethical degeneracy or licence; but the Indian mind is always compelled by its master impulse to reduce all its experience of life to the corresponding spiritual term and factor and the result was a transfiguring of even these most external things into a basis for new spiritual experience. The emotional, the sensuous, even the sensual motions of the being, before they could draw the soul farther outward, were taken and transmuted into a psychical form and, so changed, they became the elements of a mystic capture of the Divine through the heart and the senses and a religion of the joy of God's love, delight and beauty. In the Tantra the new elements are taken up and assigned their place in a complete psycho-spiritual and psycho-physical science of Yoga. Its popular form in the Vaishnava religion centres round the mystic apologue of the pastoral life of the child Krishna. In the Vishnu Purana the tale of Krishna is a heroic saga of the divine Avatar: in later Puranas we see the aesthetic and erotic symbol developing and in the Bhagavat it is given its full power and prepared to manifest its entire spiritual and philosophic as well as its psychic sense and to remould into its own lines by a shifting of the centre of synthesis from knowledge to spiritual love and delight the earlier significance of Vedanta. The perfect outcome of this evolution is to be found in the philosophy and religion of divine love promulgated by Chaitanya.
It is the later developments of Vedantic philosophy, the Puranic ideas and images and the poetic and aesthetic spirituality of the religions of devotion that inspired from their birth the regional literatures. The literature of the Sanskrit tongue does not come to any abrupt end. Poetry of the classical type continues to be written especially in the South down to a comparatively late period and Sanskrit remains still the language of philosophy and of all kinds of scholarship: all prose work, all the work of the critical mind is written in the ancient tongue. But the genius rapidly fades out from it, it becomes stiff, heavy and artificial and only a scholastic talent remains to keep it in continuance. In every province the local tongues arise here earlier, there a little later to the dignity of literature and become the vehicle of poetic creation and the instrument of popular culture. Sanskrit, although not devoid of popular elements, is essentially and in the best sense an aristocratic speech developing and holding to the necessity of a noble aspiration and the great manner a high spiritual, intellectual, ethical and aesthetic culture, then possible in this manner only to the higher classes, and handing it down by various channels of impression and transfusion and especially by religion, art and social and ethical rule to the mass of the people. Pali in the hands of the Buddhists becomes a direct means of this transmission. The poetry of the regional tongues on the contrary creates, in every sense of the word, a popular literature. The Sanskrit writers were men of the three highest castes, mostly Brahmins and Kshatriyas, and later they were learned men writing for a highly cultured elite; the Buddhist writers too were for the most part philosophers, monks, kings, preachers writing sometimes for themselves, sometimes in a more popular form for the mass of the people; but the poetry of the regional tongues sprang straight from the heart of the people and its writers came from all classes from the Brahmin to the lowest Shudra and the outcaste. It is only in Urdu and to a less degree in the Southern tongues, as in Tamil whose great period is contemporaneous with the classical Sanskrit, its later production continuing during the survival of independent or semi-independent courts and kingdoms in the South, that there is a strong influence of the learned or classical temperament and habit; but even here there is a very considerable popular element as in the songs of the Shaiva saints and Vaishnava Alwars. The field here is too large to be easily known in its totality or to permit of a rapid survey, but something must be said of the character and value of this later literature that we may see how vital and persistently creative Indian culture remained even in a period which compared with its greater times might be regarded as a period of restriction and decadence.
As the Sanskrit literature begins with the Vedas and Upanishads, these later literatures begin with the inspired poetry of saints and devotees: for in India it is always a spiritual movement that is the source or at least imparts the impulse of formation to new ideas and possibilities and initiates the changes of the national life. It is this kind that predominated almost throughout the creative activity of most of these tongues before modern times, because it was always poetry of this type that was nearest to the heart and mind of the people; and even where the work is of a more secular spirit, the religious turn enters into it and provides the framework, a part of the tone or the apparent motive. In abundance, in poetic excellence, in the union of spontaneous beauty of motive and lyrical skill this poetry has no parallel in its own field in any other literature. A sincerity of devotional feeling is not enough to produce work of this high turn of beauty, as is shown by the sterility of Christian Europe in this kind; it needs a rich and profound spiritual culture. Another part of the literature is devoted to the bringing of something of the essence of the old culture into the popular tongues through new poetic versions of the story of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana or in romantic narrative founded on the ancient legends; and here again we have work of the very greatest genius as well as much of a lesser but still high order. A third type presents vividly the religious beliefs and feelings of the people, the life of court and city and village and hamlet, of landholder and trader and artisan and peasant.
The bulk of the work done in the regional tongues falls under one or other of these heads, but there are variations such as the religio-ethical and political poems of Ramdas in Maharashtra or the gnomic poetry, the greatest in plan, conception and force of execution ever written in this kind, of the Tamil saint, Tiruvalluvar. There is too in one or two of these languages a later erotic poetry not without considerable lyrical beauty of an entirely mundane inspiration. The same culture reigns amid many variations of form in all this work of the regional peoples, but each creates on the lines of its own peculiar character and temperament and this gives a different stamp, the source of a rich variety in the unity, to each of these beautiful and vigorous literatures.
Thus under the stress of temperamental variation the poetry of the Vaishnavas puts on very different artistic forms in different provinces. There is first the use of the psychical symbol created by the Puranas, and this assumes its most complete and artistic shape in Bengal and becomes there a long continued tradition. The desire of the soul for God is there thrown into symbolic figure in the lyrical love cycle of Radha and Krishna, the Nature soul in man seeking for the Divine Soul through love, seized and mastered by his beauty, attracted by his magical flute, abandoning human cares and duties for this one overpowering passion and in the cadence of its phases passing through first desire to the bliss of union, the pangs of separation, the eternal longing and reunion, the lila of the love of the human spirit for God. There is a settled frame and sequence, a subtly simple lyrical rhythm, a traditional diction of appealing directness and often of intense beauty. This accomplished lyrical form springs at once to perfect birth from the genius of the first two poets who used the Bengali tongue, Vidyapati, a consummate artist of word and line, and the inspired singer Chandidas in whose name stand some of the sweetest and most poignant and exquisite love-lyrics in any tongue. The symbol here is sustained in its most external figure of human passion and so consistently that it is now supposed by many to mean nothing else, but this is quite negatived by the use of the same figures by the devout poets of the religion of Chaitanya. All the spiritual experience that lay behind the symbol was embodied in that inspired prophet and incarnation of the ecstasy of divine love and its spiritual philosophy put into clear form in his teaching. His followers continued the poetic tradition of the earlier singers and though they fall below them in genius, yet left behind a great mass of this kind of poetry always beautiful in form and often deep and moving in substance. Another type is created in the perfect lyrics of the Rajput queen Mirabai, in which the images of the Krishna symbol are more directly turned into a song of the love and pursuit of the divine Lover by the soul of the singer. In the Bengal poetry the expression preferred is the symbolic figure impersonal to the poet: here a personal note gives the peculiar intensity to the emotion. This is given a still more direct turn by a southern poetess in the image of herself as the bride of Krishna. The peculiar power of this kind of Vaishnava religion and poetry is in the turning of all the human emotions Godward, the passion of love being preferred as the intensest and most absorbing of them all, and though the idea recurs wherever there has been a strong development of devotional religion, it has nowhere been used with so much power and sincerity as in the work of the Indian poets.
Other Vaishnava poetry does not use the Krishna symbol, but is rather addressed in language of a more direct devotion to Vishnu or centres sometimes around the Rama Avatar. The songs of Tukaram are the best known of this kind. The Vaishnava poetry of Bengal avoids except very rarely any element of intellectualising thought and relies purely on emotional description, a sensuous figure of passion and intensity of feeling: Maratha poetry on the contrary has from the beginning a strong intellectual strain. The first Marathi poet is at once a devotee, a Yogin and a thinker; the poetry of the saint Ramdas, associated with the birth and awakening of a nation, is almost entirely a stream of religious ethical thinking raised to the lyrical pitch; and it is the penetrating truth and fervour of a thought arising from the heart of devotion that makes the charm and power of Tukaram's songs. A long strain of devotee poets keeps sounding the note that he struck and their work fills the greater space of Marathi poetry. The same type takes a lighter and more high-pitched turn in the poetry of Kabir. In Bengal again at the end of the Mahomedan period there is the same blending of fervent devotion with many depths and turns of religious thought in the songs of Ramprasad to the divine Mother, combined here with a vivid play of imagination turning all familiar things into apt and pregnant images and an intense spontaneity of feeling. In the South a profounder philosophic utterance is often fused into the devotional note, especially in the Shaiva poets, and, as in the early Sanskrit poetry, vivified by a great power of living phrase and image, and farther north the high Vedantic spirituality renews itself in the Hindi poetry of Surdas and inspires Nanak and the Sikh gurus. The spiritual culture prepared and perfected by two millenniums of the ancient civilisation has flooded the mind of all these peoples and given birth to great new literatures and its voice is heard continually through all their course.
The narrative poetry of this age is less striking and original except for a certain number of great or famous works. Most of these tongues have felt the cultural necessity of transferring into the popular speech the whole central story of the Mahabharata or certain of its episodes and, still more universally, the story of the Ramayana. In Bengal there is the Mahabharata of Kashiram, the gist of the old epic simply retold in a lucid classical style, and the Ramayana of Krittibas, more near to the vigour of the soil, neither of them attaining to the epic manner but still written with a simple poetic skill and a swift narrative force. Only two however of these later poets arrived at a vividly living recreation of the ancient story and succeeded in producing a supreme masterpiece, Kamban, the Tamil poet who makes of his subject a great original epic, and Tulsidas whose famed Hindi Ramayana combines with a singular mastery lyric intensity, romantic richness and the sublimity of the epic imagination and is at once a story of the divine Avatar and a long chant of religious devotion. An English historian of the literature has even claimed for Tulsidas's poem superiority to the epic of Valmiki: that is an exaggeration and, whatever the merits, there cannot be a greater than the greatest, but that such claims can be made for Tulsidas and Kamban is evidence at least of the power of the poets and a proof that the creative genius of the Indian mind has not declined even in the narrowing of the range of its culture and knowledge. All this poetry indeed shows a gain in intensity that compensates to some extent for the loss of the ancient height and amplitude.
While this kind of narrative writing goes back to the epics, another seems to derive its first shaping and motive from the classical poems of Kalidasa, Bharavi and Magha. A certain number take for their subject, like that earlier poetry, episodes of the Mahabharata or other ancient or Puranic legends, but the classical and epic manner has disappeared, the inspiration resembles more that of the Puranas and there is the tone and the looser and easier development of the popular romance.
This kind is commoner in western India and excellence in it is the title to fame of Premananda, the most considerable of the Gujerati poets. In Bengal we find another type of half-romantic half-realistic narrative which develops a poetic picture of the religious mind and life and scenes of contemporary times and has a strong resemblance in its motive to the more outward element in the aim of Rajput painting. The life of Chaitanya written in a simple and naive romance verse, appealing by its directness and sincerity but inadequate in poetic form, is a unique contemporary presentation of the birth and foundation of a religious movement. Two other poems that have become classics, celebrate the greatness of Durga or Chandi, the goddess who is the Energy of Shiva,- - the "Chandi" of Mukundaram, a pure romance of great poetic beauty which presents in its frame of popular legend a very living picture of the life of the people, and the "Annadamangal" of Bharatchandra repeating in its first part the Puranic tales of the gods as they might be imagined by the Bengali villager in the type of his own human life, telling in the second a romantic love story and in the third a historical incident of the time of Jehangir, all these disparate elements forming the development of the one central motive and presented without any imaginative elevation but with an unsurpassable vividness of description and power of vital and convincing phrase. All this poetry, the epic and the romance, the didactic poem, of which Ramdas and the famous Kural of Tiruvalluvar are the chief representatives, and the philosophic and devotional lyrics are not the creation or meant for the appreciation of a cultivated class, but with few exceptions the expression of a popular culture. The Ramayana of Tulsidas, the songs of Ramprasad and of the Bauls, the wandering Vaishnava devotees, the poetry of Ramdas and Tukaram, the sentences of Tiruvalluvar and the poetess Avvai and the inspired lyrics of the southern saints and Alwars were known to all classes and their thought or their emotion entered deeply into the life of the people.
I have dwelt at this length on the literature because it is, not indeed the complete, but still the most varied and ample record of the culture of a people. Three millenniums at least of a creation of this kind and greatness are surely the evidence of a real and very remarkable culture. The last period shows no doubt a gradual decline, but one may note the splendour even of the decline and especially the continued vitality of religious, literary and artistic creation. At the moment when it seemed to be drawing to a close it has revived at the first chance and begins again another cycle, at first precisely in the three things that lasted the longest, spiritual and religious activity, literature and painting, but already the renewal promises to extend itself to all the many activities of life and culture in which India was once a great and leading people.
Suggestions for Further Reading
- Thoughts and Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo
- Sri Aurobindo on Astrology
- Fate and freewill by Sri Aurobindo
- Man and Battle for Life From The Essays on the Bhagavdgita by Sri Aurobindo
- The Nature of Supermind by Sri Aurobindo
- Sri Aurobindo on Yoga
- Philological methods of the Vedas
- The Process of evolution by Aurobindo
- The Puranas and the Tantras by Sri Aurobindo
- Essay on rebirth by Sri Aurobindo
- The Reincarnating Soul by Sri Aurobindo
- The Spiritual aim of life by Aurobindo
- The strength of stillness by Sri Aurobindo
- The Superman by Sri Aurobindo
- The Supramental Sense by Sri Aurobindo
- Thoughts and glimpses of Sri Aurobindo
- An essay on the Upanishads by Sri Aurobindo
- An Essay on the Vedas by Sri Aurobindo
- The yoga and its objects by Sri Aurobindo
- An essay on yoga and skills by Sri Aurobindo
- Thoughts and Glimpses of Sri Aurobindo
- The Prayers and Meditations of the Divine Mother
- The Visions of the Divine Mother
- Excerpts From the Notebook of Sri Aurobindo
- Essays On Dharma
- Esoteric Mystic Hinduism
- Introduction to Hinduism
- Hindu Way of Life
- Essays On Karma
- Hindu Rites and Rituals
- The Origin of The Sanskrit Language
- Symbolism in Hinduism
- Essays on The Upanishads
- Concepts of Hinduism
- Essays on Atman
- Hindu Festivals
- Spiritual Practice
- Right Living
- Yoga of Sorrow
- Happiness
- Mental Health
- Concepts of Buddhism
- General Essays
Source: This article was originally published in the Arya in 1920 and is currently in the public domain. It is reproduced here as per the international conventions on copyright laws for the benefit of our readers


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Featured in the August, 2006 issue of Sky & Telescope Magazine
Kathy and I had been enjoying amateur astronomy for about a year when I decided it was time to try my hand at building a telescope. I wasn't happy with equatorial or Dobsonian mounts--both types have difficulty reaching certain parts of the sky, and equatorial mounts make you do some back-breaking contortions to reach the eyepiece once you do find your target--so I decided to see if I could design something that would be easy to point and easy to look into no matter where in the sky it was aimed.
I didn't want to be influenced by what others had done, so I purposefully didn't look for other designs until I had come up with one on my own. I followed a few false leads, but I eventually figured out that a spherical base resting in a socket would let me point the scope anywhere in the sky with equal ease, and it would let me rotate the eyepiece to a comfortable position no matter where I was looking.
That was half the battle, but one of the things I didn't like about Dobsonian mounts is that you have to keep shoving them by hand to track the stars. How could I make my mount track automatically? The answer to that came in a flash of inspiration: The stars move because the Earth--a sphere--rotates. But I was building a spherical telescope, so if I made it rotate in the opposite direction, it would track. Once I realized that, the solution was obvious: rest the sphere against an axle that points at the celestial pole, and rotate the axle.
Confident that I had just reinvented the wheel--almost literally--I went online to see how other people had done it. Surprise! Apparently nobody had. Spherical telescopes were old news (Isaac Newton even mounted his scope on a ball!), but nobody was talking about my kind of mount. I showed a scale model to other astronomers, figuring there must be some fundamental flaw in the design that would explain why nobody was building them, but nobody I talked to could find anything wrong with the concept. And none of them had ever heard of this design, either.
So I searched the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database, and
came up blank there, too. As near as I could tell, I had come up with a
new design for a mount that not only eliminates the pointing problems of
equatorial mounts and Dobsonian mounts, but also tracks. I called it the
"trackball" because there's no better name to describe it. Happily,
another search of the USPTO database showed that the term "trackball"
has fallen into the public domain, so apparently anyone is free to use
it as a generic term for this type of telescope.
Many people urged me
to patent the design, but I decided I would much rather put it into the
public domain so anybody could build (and sell) them as they wish. So I
did just that. In July of 2005 I displayed the scope and mount at a
public star party, effectively placing it in the public domain. The
article in Sky and Telescope reinforced that action, as does this
web site. My actions only affect the parts of the design that are new
with me, of course, but that much at least is free for everyone to use,
and nobody may patent it.
After the article came out, I heard from several people who remembered seeing similar designs in the past. None of those designs have been quite the same as mine, but the concepts are similar enough to make it clear that the idea has been around for a while. That's okay with me! As with any star party, the more the merrier. And it turns out that Canadian amateur telescope maker Pierre Lemay came up with the same idea 10 years before I did, so he clearly has the prior art. I've put more detailed information on the other designs below.
Speaking of other designs, here's a photo of my second trackball,
which I made for my wife, Kathy. It's nearly identical to the first in
construction and focal length. The biggest difference is that I beefed
up the mount a bit and used a different motor. More on that on the mount page.
So how do you build a trackball? The most important thing is not to be afraid to experiment. My design philosophy has been to make it work first, then worry about making it pretty. I'll describe how I built mine, but if you have a better idea for any of aspect of the design, go for it! Look around your shop for whatever will work rather than following my recipe to the letter. So with that in mind, here's a general idea of how to build a trackball. I've divided the instructions into two pages to make them easier to load and view. Click on the part of the top photo you're interested in, or click on the following links. Below these links I've written some instructions for using the completed telescope and mount, and some other ideas and random thoughts about the design.
The trackball is amazingly easy to set up. Just put the mount on a level surface, aim the drive axle at the celestial pole, set the telescope on the mount, and turn on the motor. This simple alignment is all you'll need for visual observing even at relatively high power.
To find your target, just push the scope where you want it to go. If the eyepiece isn't in a comfortable position, rotate the scope until it is. Most times you can sit down while you're observing, which is by far the most comfortable way to view.
Once you've found your target, just let go and the scope will track. You can center it east-west (right ascension) with the fast or slow tracking buttons, but north-south (declination) adjustments are made by nudging the scope by hand.* Also, if there's any play in the gears (and there probably will be), then you'll want to overshoot to the west and then pull the scope back to the east to load the gears so the scope will begin tracking the moment you let go. You'll quickly learn to combine these adjustments into one smooth, quick motion, so you don't even think about it anymore. You'll just point, let go, and observe.
If your target drifts out of the field to the east or west, adjust the tracking speed. If it drifts to the north or south, nudge the mount sideways or raise or lower the axle a bit to bring it back. That's called drift aligning, and it's a piece of cake. If you've never done it, click here for instructions.
*It turns out there's an easy way to make a declination adjustment.
Thanks go to Pierre Lemay (see below) for
the idea. He figured out that you can make a declination adjustment by
mounting the idler bearings on a pivot that lets you move them toward
and away from the drive axle. That will force the ball to roll up or
down the axle, which translates to motion in declination. Very neat!
I've got a couple other thoughts about this concept on the mount page.
There's not a lot of air flow inside the ball. My scope takes about half an hour to cool on an average night, but then again, my mirror is pretty thin. If yours is thicker, it might take longer, and you might need to install a fan. I've experimented with a 1.5" muffin fan mounted at an angle inside the ball where it's out of the light path and can swirl air down under the mirror and back out the other side of the ball, and that seems to work okay. You might be able to drill holes in the ball and mount a fan to blow air straight out (or in), but if you do, use a small drill so the holes don't mess up your tracking. They have to be small enough that the grid of them will ride across the bearings without bumping.
You might try putting insulation over the counterweight to keep it from radiating heat into the ball, but that might just slow down the cooling process. It depends on how fast its heat will escape through the outer surface of the ball. Experiment with removable foam before you spray permanent stuff in there!
You could cut a big enough hole in the ball for the secondary cage to nest in there during transport, but that would probably cut into your ability to look close to the horizon. I thought collapsibility would be a neat thing when I was designing my scope, but I quickly gave it up when I saw how difficult it would be, and in truth I've never needed to take the telescope apart except to tinker with it anyway. Maybe if it was longer, but at 38 inches it fits into the back seat (or upright in the passenger seat) of my Volkswagen just fine.
I haven't put a handle on mine yet, but the part of the ball directly below the eyepiece never rides on the bearings, so a handle there shouldn't get in the way of anything. On the other hand, it's pretty easy to carry the scope by the lip of the ball, so I may just keep doing that. One other thought on the subject: I'm not sure how strong an acrylic sphere is. My fiberglass sphere is plenty strong enough to support the entire scope's weight from a couple of handle attachment points, but you might want to err on the side of caution with an acrylic sphere.
I put about $500 into my first trackball. Some of that was blind alleys (making a fiberglass sphere instead of buying an acrylic one, experimenting with Teflon instead of bearings, etc). My second and third ones cost about $350-$400 each. If you buy a finished primary mirror rather than make your own, it will probably run you more. Or you could rob the mirrors and other hardware out of your Newtonian and build the whole thing for practically nothing. Once you use a trackball, you'll never go back to that old scope anyway. :-)
Here's my
scale model: a Christmas tree ornament with a film can taped to it to
represent the top end of the scope. I smooshed modeling clay inside the
ball to counterbalance the film can, and set it on a triangle of sticks.
When I spun the rubber-hose axle that I placed over one of the sticks,
the film can would trace an arc across the sky. Near the pole, it would
just spin in place. It worked!
Several people have emailed me since the article came out in Sky & Telescope magazine, telling me about other designs for making sperically mounted scopes track.
The earliest I've heard of so far was built in the early 1970s by Norman James. His scope floated in a pan of water and was driven with an axle attached to the low end of the ball by a suction cup. Here are links to a couple of pictures of that:
The person who emailed me that said there's a publication about this same inventor's ideas. I haven't looked it up yet, but here's the citation:
James, Norman. Fiberglass Applications for the Telescope Maker. pp29-52. Proceedings of the 1970 Annual Convention of the Western Amateur Astronomers. (8 inch Newtonian, spherical mounting)
Then there's a Belgian man named Alphonse Pouplier who motorized an Astroscan and had an article about it in the August 1993 Sky & Telescope. He didn't use a polar-aligned axle, but he did come up with a clever tracking system--and his even has go-to capability. He has posted his article online; the URL is http://users.skynet.be/alphonse/skytel.htm
The third, and so far closest design to mine, was built by Pierre
Lemay of Quebec. He tried a single drive axle with two omnidirectional
idler bearings and had trouble with the axle slipping against the
sphere, so he switched to two drive axles and a single idler. That gave
him better control of the ball, and also allowed him to devise a very
clever way to make fine adjustments in declination. He mounted his idler
bearing on a pivot so it can move toward or away from the drive axles.
That forces the ball to roll up or down the axles, which provides
declination control. He has a lot of information about his design on his
Pierre also arrived at the same conclusion I did regarding patents. He decided to put his idea in the public domain, so he showed it at the 1995 Stellafane convention, and it was featured in the "Ten Top Telescope Ideas of 1995" article in the January 1996 issue of Sky & Telescope.
Pierre would be happy to discuss his design with anyone who is interested. His email address is to the right. (Sorry you can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart spambots that search the internet for addresses to send junk mail to.)
Drift alignment can seem pretty involved if you get a complicated set of instructions, but it's actually very simple.
Aim the telescope at a star to the south, and somewhere near the celestial equator. (That's 90 degrees away from the pole, along a line that runs straight overhead.) Look for north-south motion of the star. We're only concerned with north-south motion. If it drifts east or west, your drive is set too fast or slow. And I'm talking about actual motion, i.e. the direction you have to push the telescope to re-center the star. If the star drifts south, then rotate the entire mount so the axle points farther west. If it drifts north, rotate the mount so the axle points farther east.
Now look at a star near the horizon to the east, and see if it drifts north or south. This time if your target drifts south, then angle your axle farther upward (toward a higher latitude on your scale). If it drifts north, lower the axle.
If you were a long way off in either direction, do the whole procedure again to fine-tune it.
Aim the telescope at a star to the north, and somewhere near the celestial equator. (That's 90 degrees away from the pole, along a line that runs straight overhead.) Look for north-south motion of the star. We're only concerned with north-south motion. If it drifts east or west, your drive is set too fast or slow. And I'm talking about actual motion, i.e. the direction you have to push the telescope to re-center the star. If the star drifts south, then rotate the entire mount so the axle points farther east. If it drifts north, rotate the mount so the axle points farther west.
Now look at a star near the horizon to the east, and see if it drifts north or south. This time if your target drifts south, then angle your axle farther downward (toward a lower latitude on your scale). If it drifts north, raise the axle.
If you were a long way off in either direction, do the whole procedure again to fine-tune it.
I've had a lot of help in developing the trackball idea. My wife, Kathy, has been incredibly supportive and has helped brainstorm many a gadget at unlikely hours of the day. David Davis and Mel Bartels, thin mirror gurus and telescope builders extraordinaire, have also been most generous with their time and enthusiasm. Thanks also to Ted Touw, Craig Daniels, Chuck Lott (of the Lott 35mm finder fame), Tom Conlin, Arnie Wittstein, Jim Ruzicka, Dave Cole, Bill Murray, and the entire Eugene Astronomical Society for help and support. Thanks also to Gary Seronik, my editor at Sky & Telescope, who knows how to make a writer feel appreciated. Thanks to you all, I've had a ton of fun on this project.
After the article came out, I heard from many people who remembered seeing similar designs, and from one person who had actually built a similar design over a decade ago. My thanks to all of you who helped flesh out the history of this idea, and my thanks especially to Pierre Lemay, who not only arrived at the same design before I did, but who placed it in the public domain just as I did. Great minds think alike!
I hope anyone else who builds a trackball will get as much enjoyment from it as I have had with mine.
I'd love to hear from people who are interested in the trackball. Please feel free to email me at the address on the right. (Sorry you can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart spambots that search the internet for addresses to send junk mail to.) I have no idea how much mail this idea will generate, so I can't guarantee a response, but I'll do my best to answer everyone who writes with a genuine question or comment about the trackball.


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Autolyse expirement
Hi Everyone. I have been baking 2-3 loaves a day trying different techniques and trying to get the highest loaves possible. I measure each bread that I make for width and height. One thing I noticed is that sometimes my bread was more squat for the same recipe then other times and I wasn't sure why. When I do my recipes they always give a time range to autolyse (i.e. let bread rest for 20-40 minutes). I usually set my timer for the middle of the time period but sometimes I get to them at the low end and sometimes I get to to them at the high end. This is the only thing that varied so I decided to do a test and see if it was the autolyse causing the problem. I made two of the same breads, using flour from the same bag, yeast from the same batch, two of the same dutch ovens, in two of the same ovens (both tested to make sure their temperatures were the same). I folded them the same number of times, they sat next to each other in the same spot and I made them together with the exception that one had a 30 minute autolyse and the other had no autolyse. What I found was that the non-autolyse was higher and less squat than the autolysed version. The crumb and crust looks the same. Here's pictures. The non-autolyse is on the left and the autolysed version is on the right.


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MITCHELL Ruth E. Barnes, 95, passed away at 7:15 a.m. Sunday, June 10, 2012, at Mitchell Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Born March 19, 1917 in Bono Township, she was the daughter of Frank and Oma May (Mooney) McIntire. She married Verlin Barnes January 24, 1936, and he preceded her in death March 5, 1997.
She graduated from Mitchell High School in 1934 and was a homemaker. Ruth was a member of Mitchell First Christian Church, Dorcas Circle, Fleur de Lis, North Hills Eastern Star Chapter No. 526 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was a charter member of Spring Mill Homemakers.
Surviving: sons, Robert Wayne Barnes, Pittsburgh, PA
Kenneth Edward Barnes, Los Angeles, CA
7 grandchildren
12 great grandchildren
Her parents; husband; daughter, Barbara Ann Albosta; son, William Franklin Barnes; and brothers, Ralph and Ray McIntire preceded her in death.
Funeral service will be at 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, June 13, in the Memorial Chapel of Chastain Funeral Home and Cremation Center with Pastor Mike Collins officiating. A private burial will be in Talbott Cemetery.
Friends may call from 1:00-3:00 p.m., Wednesday, at the funeral home.


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My daughter started dancing with you just a few months after her third birthday. She is now 18. Denise, I can't thank you enough for being her "mom away from mom" all of these years. Dance is the greatest joy in her life. Whenever I drop her off, I know she is going to a place where she is loved!
Danielle V


text:
Original distribution (c) Bart Lagerweij and Erwin Veermans
An updated version of Erwin Veermans' excellent NwDsk (FreeDOS UBCD). This new release features bug-fixes, updates and enhancements from previous revisions (see change log for a complete list of updates/changes)
- Improved memory management and detection
- Improved compatibility, redundancy and error handling
- Reduced memory footprint (more conventional memory now available)
- Improved device driver/tsr program handling
- Better boot transparency
- Extended driver support (USB, UDMA, SCSI)
- Dynamic front-end UI
- Joint-compatible with version 4.11 and 5.xx
Source: MediaFire
http://ubcd.partedmagic.com/downloads/f ... fdubcd.igz - (2.88Mb core version) for UBCD4.11/5.xx
Download, unzip, then replace the existing image "dosubcd.igz" from the UBCD ISO:
UBCD 5.0b
Code: Select all
Code: Select all
I'm open to suggestions.
Change Log, rev1.33
Change Log, rev1.32added support for passing variables (ubcdcmd parameter) to the image, when using grub4dos floppy emulation
corrected parsing of version number when it is longer than previously assumed
Change Log, rev1.31fixed serious bug for UBCD 4.1.1 (forgot to set valid path to "dosapps" /main folder)
adjusted ramdrive (volume label now assigned)
replaced SHSURDRV to 1.11a (no-GZIP + ~10Kb smaller)
replaced stow.exe with nset.exe (~3Kb smaller + more features)
replaced choice.exe with choix.exe (~4Kb smaller)
Change Log, rev1.28adjusted NwDsk version number (3.42=>3.40)
updated UMBPCI to 3.77
adjusted ramdisk:
- set ramdisk XMSDSK/SHSURDRV sector size from 0(?) to 512 bytes
- replaced XMSDSK with SHSURDRV v1.10
replaced unzip.exe with pkunzip.exe (PKWARE 2.50 for DOS) ~20Kb smaller
- adjusted autoexec.bat, runapp.bat and unpack.bat to reflect change
adjusted /level3 post-processing
- adjusted cd drive detection routine (e.g. no longer dependent on ubcd.ico)
- NwDsk settings can now be supplemented via an .INI file**
- relative path(s) of dosapps no longer dependent on UBCD version
- can now choose to launch CD dosapps as an archive or unpacked as a directory
- launching CD dosapps is no longer dependent on "dosapp" root directory (NwDsk will find it)
adjusted UBCD program handling
- automatically finds the program archive/directory regardless of location
- added archive support to include rar,7z and uha in addition to cab and zip
- see development notes for a full list of features...
adjusted saveset.bat in utilz.cab
removed ranish partition manager (already included on CD)
fixed an error in cdrom loader for non-eltorito drives : "_devld not found"
replaced stype.exe with more.exe (~18Kb smaller)
added mdir.exe (consistent DIR command across FD/DR/MS platforms)
fixed other tiny errors
Change Log (rev1.27):fixed bug for USB users (should now work when booting UBCD 5b from USB)
fixed a minor error in the help menu (reboot command now echoes the correct parameter)
added support for uha archives; CD dosapps can now be archived as CAB, ZIP, or UHA**
updated CuteMouse version 2.1beta4 to "PATCHED" jwasm version
removed APPEND.EXE, MOVE.EXE
removed DOS32A 32-bit DOS Extender (DOS4GW does the same)
some typos q;
** requires unharc.exe (not included due to fd size constraints)
Change Log (rev1.21):code optimisation
- upped code granularity and speed
adjusted device driver/tsr program handling
- adjusted devhigh.bat, devload.bat in /bin/modboot.cab
- removed tsrload.bat from /bin/modboot.cab (now automatically handled by devload.bat)
corrected method by which CD directories are set if found to exist
- using "if exist %path%" does not always work when applied to a CD-ROM (due to different directory system)
adjusted /bin/utilz.cab
- added VAR.BAT (auto sets environmental variable declared by varset.com)
- added INTF.BAT (simple loop function used to test if an integer exists between a sent range)
- added concat.exe
- added stow.exe
adjusted /level3 post-processing
- full names now displayed in CD Menu (UBCD 5.xx only)**
- CD help file now accessible (UBCD 5.xx only)**
added btcdrom.sys to /lib/cdsys.cab (SCSI CD-ROM Driver for Buslogic Controller Cards)
updated (ASPI)USB modboot to ver1.3
- major overhaul of loader (see development notes for details)
updated UDMA modboot to ver1.51 (improved execution speed and error handling)
added support for additional SCSI Host Controllers:
- Adaptec 39320/29320/7902/7901 Ultra320 PCI SCSI Host Contoller
- AMI MegaRAID 428 Ultra SCSI RAID Controller
- Future Domain TMC-18C30 Fast PCI SCSI Host Controller
- Tekram Technology DC-315U PCI SCSI-3 Host Adapter
- Tekram DC-390 PCI SCSI Host Controller
- Symbios Logic 3c1030/3c1035 PCI-X Dual Ultra320 SCSI
- type "aspi" or "scsi" at the command prompt to launch
reduced ramdisk size from 20Mb to 16Mb
** duplicate/incorrect entries are being addressed by Victor.
Change Log (rev1.2):Typing "bcd" or "ubcd" at the command prompt would loop back and execute any previously launched application if called from the root isolinux menu INSTEAD of launching the menu (put simply, I forgot to clear an environmental variable).
Change Log (rev1.1):Fully dynamic ubcd front-end UI for all available dosapps, system tools and commands
ubcd 5.xx dosapp archives now support .cab (higher compression ratios when using LZH)
ubcd 5.xx will prompt user to free-up ramdisk if running a dosapp without enough available memory present
fixed a bug from previous version for UBCD 4.1.1 (variable assignment of %UBCDDRV% now resolved from %CDDRV% - i.e. stuff works better)
updated ubcd.bat in /level3/autorun3.cab
All "startup.bat" files found in /ubcd/dosapps/<appname> (UBCD 5.xx) or /dosapps/<appname> (UBCD 4.11) are automatically
parsed and copied to /bcd in ramdrive AND renamed to their corresponding application title. access via
ubcd front-end or simply browse /bcd to view. alternatively, type the name of the application from
anywhere in the command prompt:
e.g. type "aida16" to load aida16
updated config.sys
- moving of EBDA (Extended BIOS Data Area) is incompatible with some BIOSes. Now disabled.
replaced himemx 3.32 with himem64 3.26 (himemx compatibility issues on some systems >8Gb mem?)
compressed /bin/bcdw.com to /bin/bcdw.cab (saves ~20Kb)
added stype.exe to /level1/help.cab
adjusted "help" command in /level1/help.cab (now pauses at the end of each screen page)
adjusted Keyboard modboot (v1.2)
- updated mkeyb driver to 0.41
adjusted MOUSE modboot (v1.1)
- updated ctmouse to v2.1b4
- new configuration options available (type "mouse" at command prompt to look see)
added DOS4GW 32-bit DOS Extender (royalty free)
updated ASPIUSB modboot (ver1.2)
- stuff
- adjusted error detection for "guest" mass storage driver (i.e. there exists one as of now)
- added DUSE 4.9 USB drivers (useful)
- added help page (tells you what a "USB" is)
- fixed bug (you can now type "usb" and/or access via menu to correctly launch the modboot)
updated /bin/lbacache.cab
- adjusted fdcch.bat (can now send parameter to unload/restore lbacache)
- param: -u|e (uninstall/enable) or -e -l to enable LOW
- when unloaded, may leave small allocation in memory (~300 bytes or more). script checks to see memory used as well as whether it is present in memory or not
- following unload, loadhigh may fail when using -e parameter -> script tries to force low if this happens
- won't go resident if already loaded etc
- put simply, a "pain-in-the-arse" driver (-:
updated UDMA (ver1.5)
- fixed bug whereby lbacache might fail to re-initialise if forced to conventional memory (see fdcch.bat)
- added Terrabye 1.03 "UDMATSR" driver (rawread gain on some systems)
- adjusted load-check (will now abort if ANY udma driver found resident)
- adjusted UDMA2 transfer mode (will default to "6" if invalid mode specified)
- added option to load driver "Low" (for EMM386)
- added help page (exciting)
- consolidated all drivers to /lib/udma.cab (saves ~10Kb)
removed enufdisc.exe, stow.exe, calc387.exe from "/bin/supp.cab" (identical functions achieved using "magic") q:
removed get.exe from "/bin/supp.cab" (identical functions achieved using wbat)
removed diskcopy.exe from /level1/freedos.cab
deprecated /bin/supp.cab
cab files in path %srcdrv%/bin auto-delete once inflated
consolidated cdrom drivers to /lib/cdsys.cab (saves ~4Kb)
added atapi aspi.sys to /lib/cdsys.cab (required for burning cds from DOS)
moved vmode.bat and L25,L36,L50.com to /bin/utilz.cab
moved mi.com to /bin/utilz.cab
fixed bug(?) where ranish partman fails to launch from the menu
adjusted Keyboard modboot (rev1.2)
- US keyboards don't require a keyboard handler (i.e. driver wont load unecessarily if a "US" keyboard is declared)
adjusted autoexec.bat (creates /usr directory in ramdrive)
adjusted volkov commander (now unpacks to "/usr/vc" in ramdrive)
re-wrote runapp.bat in /bin/utilz.cab (a pleasant experience)
now echoes the correct UBCD version and build date
...plenty more i'd care to forget (-:
Change Log (rev1.0):updated "/bin/modboot.cab"
- added umbchk.bat - checks status of UMB; echoes "MEM: UMA(n) where n=1(enabled) or 0(unavailable)
- updated modboot.bat (now calls umbchk.bat during boot)
removed tsrhigh from "/bin/modboot.cab"
updated tsrload/devload from "/bin/modboot.cab"
- each script intelligently loads a given device/tsr program
- automatically determines if UMA available for high load (forces low if UMA unavailable)
- gracefully aborts load if given device/tsr already resident
- usage: "devload [-l] %ramdrv%\lib\driver.sys /1 /2 /etc"
- pass "-l" parameter to force load into conventional
updated lbacache (freeDOS diskcache) to 2008apr07
updated "/level3/autorun3.cab"
- any modboot varaible "*_NCFG" parameter is erased post-boot from "/etc/global.set"
- same applies to global set (if exist)
- why? so you can now freely access any required modboot if booting from option "0 Default (silent)" from config.sys (e.g. usbaspi, udma, etc)
removed split.exe, vmode.exe, batt.exe from "/bin/supp.cab"
removed share.exe, more.exe, undelete.com from "/level1/freedos.cab"
added "power.bat" in "/level2/idle.cab"
- invokes FdApm INFO (check AC, battery level)
added "vmode.bat" to "/bin/supp.cab"
- toggles screen between 25, 35 and 50 (43 EGA) line modes
- type "vmode" at command prompt to toggle OR add parameters -25,-36,-50 to set
updated "/bin/supp.cab"
- added sleep.exe (pause batch files for pre-determined time)
- replaced calc.exe with calc387.exe (+386 only)
reboot command now defaults to cold boot (type "reboot /?" for options)
added LFNTOOLS 1.79 "/level0/lfntools.cab" (DOS tools for long file names)
- LFNDIR.EXE List a directory/folder like DIR
- LFNCD.EXE Changes to any directory/folder like CD
- LFNREN.EXE Renames a file like REN
- LFNDEL.EXE Deletes a file line DEL
- LFNCHK.EXE Display information about a volume
- LFNCOPY.EXE Copies files with LFN intact
- LFNMD.EXE Creates a directory like MD
- LFNRD.EXE Removes a directory like RD
updated ASPIUSB modboot (rev1.1)
- streamlined the config menu (many superfluous switches in previous version)
- renamed "aspiusb.bat" to "usb.bat" (less of a handful to type/remember at command prompt)
- Panasonic USB-to-ASPI driver now unloads properly from memory if target device error generated
- added Iomega USB host controller and guest driver
- DUSE support functional but removed (10,000 switches + consumes too much conventional memory ~375k!!!)
updated IDLE modboot (rev1.4)
- cleaned up the config menu (was a mess)
- fixed a couple of bugs (error checking)
- can now change the applied settings once loaded (prevous revision aborted)
updated LFN modboot (rev1.3)
- changed detection routine for 0.40e/0.34d
- added enable/disable switch; "lfn -[e|d]" to enable/disable (e.g. aida16 refuses to run with LFN enabled)
- optimised load ordering
updated UDMA modboot (ver1.4)
- default udma driver now limits DMA to "low memory" automatically (/L) if in UMBPCI mode
- UDMA drivers will NEVER load into UMA when using UMBPCI (by design, please stop asking)
- Option to relocate diskcache from UMA (default) to "low memory" in UMBPCI mode
- see article http://www.freedos.org/freedos/news/technote/213.html
- Unload switch now added* (type "udma -u" at command prompt to unload driver)
- default values set at load (no longer dependent on "/etc/GLOBAL.SET")
- drivers now stored in "/lib/udma/"
- optimised load ordering
- type "udma -h" to access help info
- type "udma -c" to access config
- type "udma" to launch or access via "menu"
unload WILL fail in if diskcache relocated to "low" (lbacache disrupts interrupt chains)
added MOUSE modboot (ver1.0)
- loads transparently as before - to prompt during boot, change MOUSE_NCFG to "0" in "\etc\global.set"
- can now configure device (left-hand support, 3 button etc)
- type "mouse -c" to access/change config
- to apply new config, type "mouse -u" to uninstall, then apply by typing "mouse"
general tidying (loose variables, etc)
Feedback:4DOS shell removed (compatability)
All boot modes now functional (e.g. no UMB, ultra-defensive)
Updated UMBPCI to v3.76
Replaced HIMEM.EXE with HIMEMX.EXE 3.32 (still supported; extended version of FD himem)
Updated autoexec.bat to address UMBPCI/HIMEMX
Updated "/level1/aspiusb.cab" (Panasonic Usbaspi.sys 2.24)
Updated "/level1/bootutil.cab" (spfdisk.exe)
Updated SHCUCDX to v3.04
Added UDMA modboot (version 1.3) "/level1/UIDE.CAB"
- UDMA.CAB (v8.2, 24-Oct-2005)
- UDMA2.CAB (v2.7, 24-Oct-2005)
- UDMA2s.CAB (v2.7, 24-Oct-2005)
- XDMA.CAB (v3.3, 15-Feb-2006)
- QDMA.CAB (v2.5, 7-July-2006)
LFN Modboot (Revision 1.2), moved "/level1/lfn.cab" to "/level2/lfn.cab"
- Updated to DOSLFN to 0.40e (requires SHCUCDX for LFN cdrom support)
- Included 0.34d for legacy support (non-SHCUCDX version)
- Autodetects appropriate version to load
- Dependent on SHCUCDX (hence, moved to "/level2")
- Added memory resident check (only installs if NOT resident in memory)
- Old version crashed on some machines if no UMB loaded and ldh called
- Previously, if you typed "lfn -c" to access config, you couldn't exit!
IDLE Modboot (Revision 1.3), /level2/Idle.cab
- added IdleDPMS screen saver
- IdleDMPS (screen saver) option now available in FdApm modboot
- IdelDPMS addded to "bin/utilz.cab"
- some memory-mangement juggling (compatability)
- added memory resident check (only installs if NOT resident in memory)
CDROM Modboot (Version 2.21), /level1/cdrom.cab
- improved QCDROM device handling (attempts to load into UMB if EMM386 detected)
- gcdom.sys/qcdrom.sys can be now accessed via "lib\qcdrom.cab" and "lib\gcdrom.cab"
- changed the default config to "best detection" (see /ect/global.set)
KEYBRD Modboot (Revision 1.1), /level2/keybrd.cab
- added memory resident check (only installs if NOT resident in memory)
Addressed a bug on some machines whereby IFSHLP would hang the boot-cycle if UMB was disabled
Moved "/bin/ifshlp.cab" to "/lib/ifshlp.cab" (no longer loaded by default)
Updated "/level0/msnet.cab" to version 2.71 (due to IFSHLP update)
Replaced edit.com with FreeDos Edit 0.7d in "bin/utils.cab"
Added pciscan.exe to "/bin/utils.cab"
Updated "bin/modboot.cab"
- Updated devload (device.com) to version 3.21
- Added loadsys.exe v1.4i (TSR/device loader)
- Updated devhigh.bat to call loadsys.exe instead of device.com
- Added devload.bat (loads device into conventional only)
- Added tsrload.bat (loadsys attempts to load device/tsr program into UMB)
- Added unload.bat (unloads device/tsr program(s) if loaded via loadsys)
Updated "/level1/freedos.cab"
- added callver.exe (legacy MS-DOS support tool)
- added undelete.exe
- added more.exe
- added choice.exe
- added append.exe
- added share.com
- added replace.exe
- added locate.com
- added diskcopy.com
- added format.exe
Updated HX-DOS extender runtime in "/level0/win32.cab"
Addded DOS/32 Advanced DOS Extender (v9.1.2) in "/level0/dos32a.cab"
Added DOS/4G 32-bit DOS Extender 2.61 in "/level0/dos4g.cab" (REMOVED DUE TO LICENSING ISSUES)
Added "/bin/supp.cab"
- enufdisc.exe
- stow.exe
- get.exe
- mi.com
- batt.exe
- calc.exe
- vmode.exe (set video mode & rows)
- split.exe
- get.exe
- ansi.com (non-TSR ANSI.SYS/NANSI.SYS)
Added "/level0/hex.cab" (hex editor)
Added NTFSDOS back BUT in /level0 (won't pop-up during boot).
- If you wish to use it simply type "ntfs" at the command prompt ("ntfs -u" to uninstall).
ubcd.bat, runapp.bat, ubcdos.bat move to "/bin/ubcd.cab"
Some others bits and bobs i'm sure i've forgotten.
Would be appreciated


text:
Tyson Beckford and drop-dead gorgeous trans* model Inès-Loan Rau take it all off in a scorching new editorial for luxury French magazine OOB.
The edgy editorial's concept is 'Tropical Surrealism.' It was shot by Rodolfo Martinez, with art direction and hair by Nabil Harlow, and make-up by Frank Guyton, reports Fab Magazine.
MUST READ: Are You Ready For The 'Caribbean Wives of South Florida'? [VIDEO]
The photo shoot instantly gained fans, something Rau voiced her appreciation for on Twitter:
OMG I'm almost crying to see OOB #1 ! I can't call this Magazine but it's a Masterpiece @jabemakeup@nabilharlow I am So honored to be part!
— Inès-Loan Rau (@Ines_Rau) November 3, 2013
Apparently, the photos were too hot for Instagram, which, according to Rau, disabled them more than once. When a fan protested the artistic censorship, Rau admitted that, though tasteful, the pictures may have been too erotic for social media.
In a recent interview with Models.com, Rau was candid about her sexuality and gender-expression, explaining that she had to learn to embrace herself without fear of judgement.
Read excerpt below:
Is there anyone in the industry who has inspired you to tell your story as a transgender?
Yes, the one and only Tula. After reading her book [I Am Woman] at least two times I realized how important it is to assume who you are with no fears. I am twenty-four years old and have done the change very young, at 16. Until now I wasn't really out about it. I just woke up one day realizing that it's enough, I need to embrace who I am and be loved for what I am and what I have been through- without the fear of being rejected.
What would you say to kids struggling with gender identity?
I would tell them to follow what's in their hearts and to not be scared to do what they have to do if necessary. But very important to have consulted specialists to make sure that changing your body is the right answer. Having a sex change is not the answer to insecurities or other issues, a lot of transgender do not understand that it has to be done with reflection: because of a real deep desire to be a woman from a younger age. It's fabulous the level of happiness- it's just absolutely impossible to describe. I'm the happiest girl in the world, just being what I wanted to be. You have to love yourself enough to go for it without the fear of being judged or rejected. That's my advice for them.
Read Rau's complete interview on Models.com by clicking here.
During a break in the sexy "Tropical Surrealism" shoot, Beckford sat down with OOB to talk about his phenomenal career, being sexy and what he looks for in a woman.
Read an excerpt below:
How does it feel to be the most desirable man in the world?
Oh, I don't know how to answer that one… You know what? It's so still surreal! Like really?!
Sometimes, I look at my girlfriend and say 'why are you with me?'
I guess we're all humans in some ways. Sometimes, I forget to take care of myself so sometimes I go and get my nails done. My hands have cuts caused by my bicycle and my motorcycles. I'm always doing something that I think is unsexy but some people think it is very sexy, like working on my cars or my bike.
I don't take it seriously, I just embrace it. I don't take myself too seriously but I think that it's cool. It's a good feeling.
How does your ideal woman look like?
I guess my ideal woman looks like my girlfriend. To me, she is my ideal. She has dark hair, olive skin and green eyes. As soon as I saw her, I was seduced.
I think it was mutual; she had the same feeling when she saw me. We've been dating for almost 5 years. So, she's definitely going to ask me 'when I'm going to get the ring?' and I think I will do it. It's just that at the moment she is very busy with her work and I don't want to interfere with that. She's modeling and she's doing very well.
I think the ideal woman is totally different for everyone. There are so many beautiful women out there but for me, it's her. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That is something that a lot of us don't really understand.
What is best memory regarding your career?
I would say my best memories would be shooting with Bruce Weber, working for Ralph Lauren, winning the VH1 Award, People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful… Sometimes, I forget about everything that I've done.
I have to say that my time with Ralph Lauren was really a thrill. I was quite young at the time; I went from being a kid in Washington Square Park trying to get a job, to being the "face" of a huge brand. That helped me to grow up fast. Having somebody like Ralph Lauren and his whole company, believe in me, that's amazing! I'm really blessed to represent a company like that.
Read Tyson Beckford's complete OOB Magazine interview by clicking here and see pictures from his steamy shoot with Inès-Loan Rau below!
PHOTO CREDIT: Above center picture of Inès-Loan Rau was shot by Dima Hohlov.
Celebrities Get Racially Profiled Too: Tyson Beckford & 'Finding Forrester' Star Come Forward
Tyson Beckford Sextape Being Shopped Around!
LIKE HelloBeautiful On Facebook!
HOTNESS: Tyson Beckford And Transgender Model Inès-Loan Rau Sizzle In Nude Editorial [PHOTOS] was originally published on hellobeautiful.com


text:
By Patrick Fratellone, Jallen Rix, David Rosenberg
When is a good time to start Botox? I've heard that it's better to do it preventively, but how young is too young?
Kane via instinctmagazine.com
I get asked a lot about when is the right time to start us- ing
Elevated Risk
Are gay men really at a higher risk for anal cancer? Is there something preventive we should be doing to protect ourselves; be it colonoscopy or something else?
Doug via instinctmagazine.com
A: Anal cancer is a rare dis- ease in the general population, but among gay and HIV-positive gay men, the incidence of anal cancer is significantly higher and increasing annually. In the general population, the incidence is two out of every 100,000, however in gay men (with and without HIV) the incidence is 40 out of every 100,000. While women fear the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer, as gay men we should fear other strains of HPV that cause anal cancer. Gay men get HPV through both protected and unprotected anal intercourse and through skin-to-skin contact. The one way to protect yourself is to wear a condom and know your sexual partner. As men, we can ask our doctors to perform an anal Pap, as studies recommend them every three years. If you have a history of receptive anal intercourse (aka "bottoming") you are at a higher risk for anal cancer. Smoking also puts you at a higher risk, but another risk factor for developing anal cancer is the use of recreational drugs anally. Using crystal meth or Ecstasy in the rectum can lead to higher rates of anal cell dysplasia which can lead to anal cancer. You should only have a colonoscopy if you have a positive anal Pap or there is a suggestion of other gastrointestinal issues like constipation, bloat- ing and/or diarrhea. But, when it comes down to it, follow the advice of my 22-year-old gay son: "No glove, no love." —PF
Regular Rompings
I know you're probably go- ing to say that it is different for every couple, but what is the normal amount of sex for a gay couple to have? My boyfriend and I generally have sex two or three times a week, which I think is fine but friends have said is pathetically low.
Carson in Dallas, TX
A: You are correct, Carson. Because you think that having sex two or three times a week is fine (and your partner agrees) then that's "normal" for you. It would be one thing if you weren't having sex at all. It would be another thing if, after several years, you were bored—these are different concerns. In the 1930s, the father of all sexology, Alfred Kinsey, along with his colleagues interviewed literally thousands of people about their sexual practices. He believed that one of the most common threads to hu- man sexuality was that we are all different. This, of course, is rather logical, because none of us are identical, our sexuality included. Almost a century later we're still preoccupied with the notion of what is "normal," and everyone from politicians to bullies to so- called "friends" think it's some- how more important to fall in line, rather than explore the furthest reaches of our uniqueness. Don't let your sexual passion be defined by what's "normal" (or defined by your friends). Let your sexuality be guided by your passion for intimacy, both dark desires and mainstream titillations—whatever that authentically looks like for you. Create a safe environment so that both you and your partner can explore, give and receive all that you want in the sexiest man- ner possible. —JR


text:
Transcribed from: Records for the county of Saginaw, Michigan Territory, 1835-1864 - Saginaw County Clerk.
These early Saginaw County marriages were found in the first book of the county clerk which is on film. Some pages are faded and hard to read, spelling was sounded out in parts of the records and is interesting to see. The marriages in this book only go to 1847, although it is titled to include up to 1864. There are 100 records in this set of Saginaw vitals.
The records include areas such as Tuscola, Bay, Gratiot, Oakland, and Genesee Counties which were part of Saginaw County at the time.


text:
HOUSTON – Free-agent cornerback Brice McCain has signed a three-year contract to stay with the Houston Texans.
The 5-foot-9 McCain announced on Twitter late Tuesday that he had agreed to terms and thanked his agent, David Canter. He signed his contract on Wednesday.
McCain was a sixth-round draft pick by the Texans in 2009. He played in 12 games with two starts last season before breaking his left foot in a Dec. 2 game against Tennessee. McCain finished last season with 24 tackles, an interception and eight passes defensed.
McCain is the first of Houston's unrestricted free agents to re-sign with the team. Since free agency opened, the Texans have lost tight end James Casey (Philadelphia), outside linebacker Connor Barwin (Philadelphia) and safety Glover Quin (Detroit).


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I'm very happy to announce that Naomi's new business 'Minejima & Co.' will be ensconced at Block 71, Loewen Road, Dempsey Hill, from now till 16th December. Please come by to say hi, and do some of your Christmas shopping here. It's a great Christmas Market that the folks at Dempsey Hill have put up. It's far from the madding regular mall crowds even if it's just 5 minutes from Orchard Road.
Plus, if you're a history buff like myself, you'd appreciate being in the area, once known as Tanglin Camp, and remembered by those my age as where we went for our pre-NS medicals and where our parents dropped us off on Enlistment Day (more precisely we reported to Block 15 Dempsey Road, and the old three-tonners came to the parade square to take us away after we swore allegiance to the SAF). The area has a much longer history than I can remember, of course, and you might be interested in looking at who Dempsey, Ridout, Loewen, Harding and the other roads are named after.
Anyway, back to Naomi's Minejima & Co.. A few people have asked why we sell the stuff we do – and that's been easy to answer. We want other people to enjoy the same stuff we use at home, whether they're toys that we like Kai playing with, or reusable shopping bags that are durable and don't look ugly. Our business philosophy is simple: We'll sell something only if we like it.
It's also been really encouraging so far, that people have enjoyed the products we're exclusive distributors for: Quut from Belgium, RuMe from the US and Handlebar Heroes from the UK. We did have a bit of difficulty classifying the 'type' of shop we were going to be, whether it was an eco-product shop or a kids' stuff shop or a homeware shop. But eventually, we settled on being sellers of 'Playfully Useful Things'.
We'll continue to sell online at minejima.co while we work on supplying retailers with our products. In the meantime, do come by Loewen Road this fortnight for your Christmas shopping, and have fun with our now-famous interactive sand display. Our only rule is, please keep the sand within the box or our pop-up hosts will be very upset!
Thank you all who've supported the business so far, and don't forget to follow us: